party display pushed the incumbent all the way however the judges gave the fight to klitschko meaning he retained his w.b.c. world title. on the tennis where russian nicholai died enclosure on at the world tournament in rotterdam has come to an end the thirty year old who has returned to winning ways this week following a disappointing start to twenty twelve took on the world number three and top seed roger federer in the semifinals and the solitary break of it was enough to take the set against the sixteen time grand slam where not actually broke again in the second it was immediately broken back before federal went on to claim that six three set was a close affair and was unable to take three great points at one stage before the swiss stormed back to take the match four six six three six four five still. federer will take on far martin del potro in sunday's final after the argentine secured a comfortable straight sets win over thomas but rick but it was broken in the

opening game of the match and again in the ending set as delta paltrow storm to the first set six three the two thousand and nine u.s. open champion then refused to take his foot off the gas to try gangs of the second set eventually winning six three six one. six while over in world number one victoria azarenka overcame injury to me at national advance guy and progressed to the qatar open final the better russian took the first set six two but appeared to have tweaked her ankle while doing so as a rank that were tied to injury against her advance guard during the two thousand and nine w t a championship on this very cool it's because she rewrite the script this time around the twenty two year old who was into a cold six to six pool with jerry mamet samantha stosur who reached the final after her husband marion bartoli the time due to a calf injury. to breach football now where russia unstoppable at the euro cup as

the defending champions and hosts of claim their second successive victory by beating italy for one to reach the final constantine to top off as the details. russia started then counter with italy cautiously given mind eleven goals that squadron netted in the semifinal against spain but the talons decided to play their trademark style thinking defense first and it took six minutes for the reigning champions to draw first blood and don't go out and trust them with morning and then it's a market where the ball home heating the russians in front and in the dying seconds of the first period russia's goalkeeper and a rookie at ski with a powerful show doubled the lead scoring the tournament's throws a goal by a keeper in the second my car if netted him one morning telling his for the also for the dale and then cut the deficit to two goals but you got to shake or sue the final score for one philosophically but i'm all italian national teams play defensively no matter which ghana affordability is there alone soley defendant and

count on counter attacks on them and why we got the lead times they failed to switch to a more taken style and they got it on your data we're just a better team and we're not surprised that italy continued to play our counterattacks even when they were trailing it's their style and we played well tactically and didn't let it come from behind the net quite often meanwhile the other semifinal turned out to be a cracker as hot favorites portugal and switzerland took to the sand beach divorce city is one of the most successful teams in europe with six continental titles and produced an electric start with four goals in their opening this week is reached the semifinal when their pool and rumania failed to arrive on time and then day off affected them i however switzerland managed to get back into the game and reduced forty goals lead to just a goal in the third but that was only to do seven six and four to go forward up to

the final to me it's russian a repeat of the previous year with gov decider around the russians used them six four seconds. we're delighted to be such a solid team we proved to be in the final we don't really care who will be we just have to play our game and take full advantage of unity. he said with a confident win over eataly russia brought the ambition straight another traffic today if it was growing kevin it always going to be a tough challenge as they faced by not believing nations in this court were to go in the decider on sunday to say about that. moscow now in other football chelsea in birmingham face a replay in the english f.a. cup this after a one one draw at stamford bridge david murphy had put the visitors ahead for daniel sturridge equalised in the second half elsewhere also went from bad to worse after a four nil defeat ac milan in the champions league they were dumped out of the f.a. cup following

a two no loss at sunderland championship side leicester won two one at nor age but they were comfortable when bolton and returned by three games lower league opposition. well there were three further ties on sunday at liverpool welcome championship side brighton to field stoke fresh from europa league defeat to valencia are a cruel eight tottenham have a tricky tie steven h. . game this you know you very look at this year development team to m.k. dons shift away to. be a difficult game very difficult got a new manager you know a young manager coming in and. we used to play for me to go in there with him it was fantastic for me much on the ball move. there'll be up for it there you know. we're good. if we play as we can play we should win but we know it's going to be because we're best moving to golf and phil mickelson is still on course to win his

second title in two weeks he's tied for the lead going into the final round of the northern trust open in california despite missing this eagle pass on the eleventh day calls and finished with a one under seventy on saturday tied with p.g.a. champion keegan bradley mickelson was the overnight leader but failed to pull away from the pack this was only one of two birdies scored on the day bradley meanwhile secure birdies on the sixteenth and here on the seventeenth to finish alongside mickelson on seven under bryce mold as a shot behind the gio he shot a five under sixty six helped by this birdie putt on the par five seventeenth mickelson is going for his second title in a run off to. win. meanwhile over on the european tour is a big clue has moved into a one shot lead after the third round of the indian market in new delhi in south africa hit six under par sixty six which included two eagles overnight leaders

scotland's peter wife it made the ideal start with a birdie at the first he carded six bodies in total also a couple of double bogeys which left him in a chef a second place at ten under tied with marcel seam of germany a brilliant shot here on the eighteenth led to him picking up an eagle as he carded a four hundred sixty. moving into the world of cycling inventions only barley was quickest in his ascent of the green mountain winning the penultimate stage of the tour of oman peter valid meanwhile finishing right behind the italian and the slovak now holds the overall lead as red jersey the twenty seven year old balancing his attack on the final climb of the stage during their beliefs was on his heels barly went on to break away from the leading pack of thirty right is the liquid gas rider promptly winning the ascent by a ten second margin that was only good enough for second place though as a late second place got him the regulators jazzy sandy says are came in third.

now one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the upcoming summer olympics will undoubtedly be the men's one hundred meters with several months to go before the london games one of the world's fastest printers jamaican asafa powell says that teammate you same bolts world record of nine point five eight seconds could be broken. i don't think. people can go for us to do in the when you were still would you know i think it's possible for us to engineer so it is really the biggest. activity or the. you know you know the people are looking forward to. go. get the thing you know but it's a good. you know what other goes on and so you have to be an appeaser. well that's all the sport for now i'll have more for you in a couple of hours time me that. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

the latest news in the week's top stories here in r t the syrian government feels the squeeze internationally and from within as a struggle to crush what it calls a foreign funded insurgency while promising to democratic reform. fueling and tehran rhetoric is really cute as these lawmakers state of targeting its diplomats and bomb attacks across the globe and demands more sanctions against iran over its nuclear program. appeasing the e.u. greektown p's past news terry measure is causing more protests in athens from angry workers worried about further cuts to wages and pensions. and candidates

core of the cameras and controversy to woo voters just two weeks before russia goes to the polls to elect a new president. is not i am the russian capital you're watching our team in the region joshua davis on the morning we take a look at the top stories. the week as well as the latest news stories now the majority of the u.n. general assembly adopted a resolution this week calling on syria's president and the opposition crack down and give up power russia and china are against a move and once the rebels to also lay down weapons and join talks it's a year since the uprising started and damascus has value to reform even as the killing continues. in syria for our. this is a tradition here in syria maine's volatile with tensions between security forces

and the armed opposition groups continue in claiming lives of both mildred and civilians almost every day on thursday we attended the funerals of a young boy who was gunned down early here in damascus during the n.t. government protest and the procession itself eventually turned into a hostile to a straight in the clashes that followed and that continued the next day five people were killed and many others injured one violence one day causes even more violence next and so on and so on we also can see political murders as well this week shaikh of one of the most of damascus was a sin nature apparently because of his pro assad pronouncements the shaikh came out with strong condemnation of the terror groups of the armed groups he blamed for the bloodshed calling for a to stop the violence to stop the bloodshed we're also hearing about the stooges in other parts of the country reports from opposition activists that in the city of homs many people say the city of hama they've been several explosions all pipeline

in the midst of violence these tensions all across syria really holds on to going this week and the date for the national referendum on the country's new constitution was announced the vote is expected to take place next sunday as far as the ministry of internal affairs of syria has said around fifteen million people in syria today have the right to vote for this new constitution was drafted. and the monopoly of the ruling party the baath party in syria had been in power for the last fifty years but people on the ground are actually fearing that this is not the end of in this new constitution it's too little and too late this week the chinese delegation visited syria both russia and china are calling for the dialogue to be restored between the syrian opposition and the authorities. saying that this is the only way out of the surprises. the american intelligence chief said this week that

it's likely how kind is operating in syria to bring down the regime and follows a leader of the terror group calling on militants across the region to target president asad and whether washington backing the rebellion to syrian activists believes the u.s. is starting to realize that siding with terrorists i never thought that the americans would want to publicly admit that is actually operating in syria what we know for sure is that there will have started with the beauty by amazon right here in the head of al qaeda back in july calling for jihad in syria and nobody actually took notice that when the first suicide bombings in damascus took place there were less than twenty four hours before that huge explosions. in iraq they carried the same fingerprint now the american position is very interesting it just says that her hang on a minute this is a an enemy that we want to fight and suddenly they're operating in the same theater

that we're trying to overthrow this government and perhaps it may signify that the americans are trying to understand what the syrian president had said previously that there might be tens of a lot of stars in the in the region if they keep pressuring the syrian government i would say let the syrians sort this thing ourselves and do not interfere with us the more you interfere with us the longer this takes on and the more bloodshed we will be seeing on the way here on r.t. embracing the bogeyman. the chinese are going to get. it if you take it you're going to. find out why the white house is comfortable in bed with the spider rising wave of china phobia across the us. and it was days of move forward pass or is in bahrain as the anniversary of the country's

uprising was met with a brutal crackdown by police. iran is stepping up its nuclear program at an underground side near the city of qom by installing sounds of new generation centrifuges according to reports and israel is stepping up its anti ron rhetoric and urging the international community to increase sanctions against iran israel accuses iran of being behind bomb attacks targeting its diplomats in india georgia and thailand earlier this week to iraq already under enormous international pressure over its nuclear program denies any involvement of islamic state insists nuclear work is peaceful and accuses israel waging psychological war that some theories paving the way for military action middle east expert ali risks as israel's rhetoric will only provoke a tit for tat response. here iran is trying to send a message that it cannot be you cannot deal with iran in such oyo iran has its own

weapons while the west for example believes that it has weapons and ammunition represented by sanctions iran is also an important country which can also respond in the appropriate manner i think is also a warning. that if military action is taken if military action is taken this would be small compared to how iran could react in that case i think it's a small warning that if you. take action now economic action against this is what we can do imagine what action we could take if you go ahead and use the military card against us so i think it's a. warning to the west to keep israel also tied down and to prevent israel from going ahead with the electoral map you know actual military attack trying to tell the west you'd better keep israel and talked all the wiser you might be witnessing this very difficult period in the in the future of military is launched now we're closely following the situation in iran so you can log on to our website or com for the latest developments to iranian warships have sailed through the suez canal into

the mediterranean learn of where the air had it. all that is available on our website also r.t. talks to people into iran for the earth perspective on the country's controversial nuclear program and get an inside from arabian students who volunteered to carry out the nuclear research. activists in bahrain were targeted with tear gas as they mark the first anniversary of a shia led uprising on tuesday despite promises of police reform last year just as before officers responded with force although this time manny of the tactics and weapons came not from bahrain but from the u.k. either bent explains. tear gas and stun grenades supposedly the work of a reformed police force but one year on since the first anti-government protests

still crushed in bahrain it seems not much has changed the only difference now the crackdown has been planned i want to britain's former top cops john yates used to be assistant commissioner of london's metropolitan police he now works for bahrain's. says he's there to oversee police reform the police have borrowed or behaving despicably their latest trick is to throw cans of tear gas into homes of people they don't like shut the doors and people have died choking to death tear gas or use out of doors and i think for any british police officer or overstimulate stars retired to be associated in any way with that is it's wrong yes resigned from scotland yard last year in early fix him of the phone hacking scandal he popped up in bahrain in december as part of the regime's p.r. campaign to clean up its image a campaign pushed hard it seems by yeats himself he recently told the daily

telegraph his new charges had a well rehearsed plan for the anniversary of the uprising adding the concept of reasonable reaction to provocation has been reinforced. as for the uprising itself said this isn't organized protests it's just vandalism rioting on the streets claims hotly disputed by london's bahraini community i mean when you get thousands and thousands of people protesting demanding their rights and you find that. if you seem to forget that there are sixty five or sixty five people actually died in france from police brutality activists in bahrain insists their protest was peaceful their aim to reach the iconic pole roundabout in the capital manama they say they were met by tanks toxic gas and rubber. what we witnessed on the ground as not. the front or from what the impact this previous day but it's been extended through the toxic gases and use of poison in.

mr john as contributing we should see a positive things at the ground what we are seeing today is nothing acceptable it may not just be british tactics bahrain's using but weapons to government figures show the u.k. sold over one million pounds worth of rifles and artillery equipment to bahrain from july to september last year long off the blood was spilled despite insisting all the licenses had been revoked but as for yates his contract runs until april by which time he hopes to put in place concrete reforms on this evidence that seems a long way off the bennett's. london so i have for this hour here in our comebacks and came down trodden greeks find a new spending cuts which they say will only make their dad was last in line to the future. and the chinese vice president's been touring america this weekend hailing

ties between the two countries the us media isn't quite as positive after vilifying the communist country which holds more than a trillion dollars of american dad in his coffers before the white house business comes before public opinion as to count reports from washington. what a better way to celebrate valentine's day than with a partner who lends you money nonstop provides you with cheap labor and host thousands of your factory to the remarkable development of china u.s. relations america's love for china would be boundless if not for the growing fear of it these guys around for us and the end of it and and and looking for ways to have. to work to harm us i want to beat china i want to go to war with china and make america the most attractive place in the world to do business menacing and vilifying china are typical for political campaigns in america these days like

these that i'm going to get warm and go after death to our fortune to do it and that is how our great empire grows again. it's not too late to stop this nightmare it's on r.g.p. even children still made the child in short that it's. no sweetie the chinese are going to get. there's still a billion of them in their economy is getting there with their kids is it taking advantage of their going to be getting any kid. with china being the biggest foreign creditor for the us the economic interdependency between the two is raising red flags in the minds of many americans that china can very easily just bankrupt america overnight all they've got to do is just dump dollars and trade stories switch to euros radio the current that's him of america except experts agree china would never do that because beijing is just as interested in preserving the value

of their us treasury holdings as well as the rich market for their manufactured goods but this it could all make interdependency becomes a headache for washington when china demonstrates policies independent from america's will and the white house has to stifle this content. and for one smiles china blocking the u.s. backed resolution on syria is one example russia came under fire from washington for opposing forceful regime change in syria while the u.s. criticism for china was far more muted for taking the same position but the reality is that. the west have to treat with much more with kid gloves because of the integral relationship in terms of the way that the chinese economy now is so totally woven in with the western one neither country is capable of dominating the other and neither country is going to win a cold war type situation as china's influence grows president obama has pledged to

strengthen u.s. positions in the pacific going as far as the flowing extra troops to the region this is made some wonder whether the u.s. can reconcile with this situation when it's not dominating. announced disappeared at the pentagon by the way the pivoting from the middle east to asia this means more u.s. interest is cellcept in the sauce china sea military station the starting in norse in australia but maybe in contacts with surely p.m.'s singapore and thailand specially very close allies of the us here in southeast asia so the chinese they look at this and they see encircled washington's treatment of this or that country depends on its interests there is nothing surprising about that but it seems with all you know america may find itself hostage to those interests in a situation where you cannot simply dictate its policies in the meantime beijing's economic clout is growing feeling americans fear i'm going to check our reporting

from washington i think and maybe a fireworks replays gunshots on friday when the country marked a year since the start of the uprising that toppled modern khadafi but post-revolutionary instability is still making life very difficult hundreds of armed militias are roaming the country and the ruling national transitional council appears unable to control. there's also evidence of the torture and abuse of the remaining khadafi supporters journalist phelim who cover advance in libya during the uprising says the outcome was predictable. there is actually no government in libya at the moment the n.t. thing is nothing more than a media show that there are hundreds of militias that control different parts of the country and this one of gadhafi and the former libyan government always warned that this would happen so we are seeing that anybody who doesn't agree with this state of affairs by the west the rebels is systematically persecuted as you mentioned. have done a report showing that there is

a systematic people who support about the not least the former permanent representative of the united nations. human rights watch digital court i mean basically say that he's been tortured to within an inch of his life and they called for him to even be brought before a court or released immediately to a very important other figures to bring him. to the bus that philosophers and just because they don't support the nato intervention in that country they have also been taught to do this they are being detained we actually don't know their status . and greece approved a new security bill on sunday and return to it for in return for a second because we're designed to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt although angry greeks worried about pensions and jobs responded was more protests on the streets of athens jacob griefs reports. the system. of the pleas of of tens.